Monday, December 3, 2012

Winter Hike @ Mount Hua in Xian, Shaanxi.

It was the most unforgettable experience in my whole life to climb the Mount Hua (Huashan) in Xian. It is the scariest of the 5 Sacred Mountains in the whole of China for its steepest altitudes. The scenery was awesome and breathtaking as we climbed higher and got closer to heavens!

These mountains have several peaks at the North, South, East and West directions with the highest at 7,070 feet!!!!!! (2155 meters) Yes, we reached the top and screamed our jubilant lungs out!



Our tour guide and driver picked us up from the Citadines Hotel at 8:00am and drove some 120 kilometers to a town near Huayin at the East of Xian. Here, we took the special bus that traveled on the most bumpy roads to the Cable Car Station. If I was pregnant, I could have gotten instant miscarriage on the bus!





The Cable Car Station was at the bottom of the white rocky mountains. We were lucky as the sky was clear and it just snowed the day before otherwise they will not allow us to visit. It is subject to daily weather conditions during Winter in Xian.



We jumped into the moving cable car and it brought us up very high to the peak of a smaller mountain.





The view was lovely at every direction. I would pause and admire them like priceless paintings! We could only admire such panoramic scenery in China.



Here is the map showing the various peaks of all directions. Most of the hikers would try to climb all of them. It was very tough to cross-climb from peak to peak.Crazy!




 
The steps were short and narrow which were extremely dangerous as it was a 2-Way traffic for hikers! As we all know, many folks are selfish and rudest beings who loved to shove & push others!




Many couples and love birds bought padlocks and clamped them everywhere! You could see hundreds of thousands of padlocks with messages. They would throw their keys into the wildness after tying them with red cloths. Do you think it works?







I think the padlocks would add more pressure to the relationships! It is like tying yourself down. I would prefer to allow my honey to breathe and live freely & happily! I believe that Good Marriages are sometimes arranged by the Heavens.




Along the route up, there are many small shrines of different Taosim deities. I offered my respects to all and put in small donations to bless us to have a safe journey up the Mount Hua.



As we climbed along for many hours, the beautiful scenery was simply breathtaking and heavenly. I was hoping to see some fairies flying above.


Most treks were very tough and not for the weak ones. You have to pull yourself upwards by tugging at their rusty chains. Many people slipped and sprained their ankles. We bought new shoes just for this trip to climb.




As we got higher, it was getting colder at Minus 5 degrees with snow everywhere. The snow melted in many areas and formed ice!!! IT WAS SO DANGEROUS!



My wife has the fighter's spirit who loves any type of adventures, She dragged me up to Mount Kinabalu and now lured me up to Mount Hua. This one was tougher than climbing Mount Kinabalu so many times!!! It was too cold and I could hardly breathe. I wanted to bury myself in the snow and die.



I was grumbling non stop and my wife just ignored me & went up ahead so proudly and happily like a small girl. She told the tour guide to watch over me. I nagged at him like a grandma all the way up as he always lied to me that the peak was just around the corner! All bullshits!





See what I mean??? There was ice everywhere and it was SO SLIPPERY! Many people fell flat and hurt their backs. It was so scary and my balls nearly dropped down many times.




 I could still smile and posed like "No Sweat".




I stopped grumbling when I saw so many tough old men who had to earn a miserable living. They had to carry heavy loads like bricks, gas cylinders and provisions up every day. They were paid very little like MYR20 per trip! MY GOODNESS!




They are building a nice shrine at another peak. The workers had to shoulder carry up every single brick, tiles and cement bags!!!! I have stopped complaining about my life now.




As we almost reached the top, the scenery became so calm and peaceful to see the mountains faraway. Many pine trees stood alone for centuries braving the 4 seasons all year long. This beautiful tree is 300 years old. Many other trees were well over 600 years old!




There was an old bell that stood at the edge of the rocky cliff. Many people stood there dangerously to pose for photographs.



 It was almost evening and the heavy mists enveloped the mountains faraway like a Chinese Brush Painting!






Look at the dangerous paths that only the brave hearts could endure for hours! One wrong move and you could fall below & DIE!!!!



I looked behind at the crowd who were SO SCARED!!!! It was so cold and windy to walk on the rugged tracks. We had to hold dearly for our lives to allow others to pass from opposite directions! If you slipped off, you would fall thousands of feet below & DIE!!!!!!!!




YAY! We managed to reach the TOP OF THE WORLD in China. The feeling was fantastic and I am always proud that my wife has always pushed me all the way! Oh man, I sound so sissy! LOL.



It was time to climb down. My spirit went limp and my limbs went numb! Anay collapsed on the granite bench! I was dying to soak inside the hot spa that night to nurse my 100% body aches after reaching 7000 feet. Why did Bosco soak himself when he had no aches?



Look at the very slippery ice paths all the way down the slopes. It was getting colder and colder towards late evening as the melted snow started to frost again! Many people hurriedly walked down to catch the last cable cars. THEY FELL FLAT like pancakes! Ouch!



 I walked slowly down like a happy grandma to admire the sunset scenery! Awww! I love this photo!




Wanna laugh? Scroll BELOW!



I was surprised that China still has very filthy & dirty toilets up in the mountains. They could not build the flushing systems up there so you could just poo into the hole. OMYGAWD! There were so many chunks of fresh brownies everywhere! Look at the photo below. See the light in between his legs??? Your poo will just roll out to nowhere!!!! They placed plastic buckets in the middle of the toilets and all the men just had to pee openly into the buckets! They would smoke happily and held their willy to pee while chit chatting and faced each other!!! Goodness - AMAZING CHINA MEN!




56 comments:

  1. One could easily roll off those cliffs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was looking out for skeletons or fossils of hikers who fell off and died! LOL

      Delete
  2. Oh please! Luckily you didn't take picture of those brownies in the toilet. I will puke, anay.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anay, nice post of your hiking at Mount Hua. Is Mount Hua refering to 华山?

      Delete
    2. I wanted to snap the brownies but there were few men waiting behind me. So malu!

      Yes the Mount Hua is correct as written in Chinese! Please visit that mountain!

      Delete
    3. Just wondering is this 华山 Hua San the same mountain that we see in Chinese swordsman movie refers to those Hua San Pai *Clan* or those like Or Mei Pai *Clan*?

      Delete
    4. If you snap the brownies am so going to ban your blog...eweeeekkkk

      Delete
    5. Why annay called it "Mountain Hua"? Shouldn't it be "Mountain Flower", from direct translate?

      Like it says, "Flying Fish Ridge" and not " Fei Yu Ridge"....

      Delete
  3. Anay, your letchumiy is the one pushing you up to peak. I don't think I will be as good as Letchumi. Usually it is Jin JIn who pushs me to do all the tough things like this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anay, you described until so scary, my heart skipped a beat when reading it. So, going up and down the mountain, how long you took?

      Delete
    2. Anay, you don't need to lock your Letchumi with padlock, because you have locked yourself with Letchumi's padlock.

      Delete
    3. Lastly, bravo to Anay for climbing up to the peak and climbing down from the mountain in one piece. I hope all your balls are still in shape.

      I should have asked you to bring a bottle of the spa water back for me as souvenir that Bosco soaked his balls in.

      Delete
    4. Husbands are supposed to be tough BUT not me! My Letchumi does not padlock me but I am stuck to her with elephant glue!

      Delete
    5. LMAO!!! Ha ha ha ha ha!!! Hot Mama made me laugh so hard! Why you want Bosco's spa water??? You wanna drink or wash your face?!?!?! OMG! Wakakakakaka....

      I still cannot believe that he jumped into my pool. Ding Dong!

      Delete
    6. " letchumiy is the one pushing you up to peak" sound like something else pulak :p

      Delete
    7. Muahahaha, how come today meow has turned hamsap?

      Yeah, annay is in the peak, after some pushing from Letchumi~~ :p

      Delete
  4. This the place where you can hire locals to carry you? I would want to see if they can carry me or not. LOL!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Woiii!!!! No one offers service here to carry elephants up! You will break their necks! Kakakaka!

      Delete
  5. Pooing and peeing while chit-chatting with each other - just like old times, eh?

    Amazing China! Hahaha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They made me wake up! I asked myself why are they not shy? It seems so natural for them to pee in front of you!

      Delete
    2. Pee in front of you - somehow it doesn't feel right. So obscene and vulgar.

      Delete
  6. The mountain scenery is simply marvelous and you captured it marvelously.

    But I sure don't want to join the crowd, especially not during peak season.

    If people can push and cut queue at HK Disneylad (which will not happen at all at Tokyo Disneyland) I'm imagining a more "brutal" crowd up there. o.O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes the Japanese people are sooooo polite and give way! Whenever I visited China, I was proud to tell them I AM MALAYSIAN instead!

      Delete
  7. Padlocks - just symbolism.

    It takes more than a simple gesture to make a relationship works.

    But sometimes, it's nice to be romantic and do these kind of "silly" stuff. No?

    p.s. I hope the keys that got thrown into the wilderness get picked up by workers. Imagine the debris.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You guessed right. I could see many rusty keys below in the bushes and tree tops! They really litter the nature. So bodoh!

      Delete
    2. wondering if one day the weight of all those padlock will make the railing collapse or not :(

      Delete
  8. You & wifey made it. Congratz. Have seen the pixz over emails but no kick as compared to yours as Bananaz can feel the journey together with you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you BANANAZ! I am glad I sounded so dramatic BUT they were all real. Scary and dangerous!

      Delete
  9. The locksmiths are laughing to the banks the more the merrier they fatt tatt. Nope will not buy the idea of locking someone. If you love him let him go, if he comes back it was meant to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also thought of opening a stall to sell padlocks and photography services!

      Delete
  10. yeah, i do heard about this Huangshan being one tough mountain to climb.. but it is really worth the effort to climb because of the beautiful and breathtaking scenery..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We go together next year okay??? You jump, I jump!

      Delete
  11. i saw some photos where people stand on a dangling rock between to cliffs.. is it in Huangshan or somewhere else??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes the dangling poses were taken in Huashan- Xian. Those private platforms were fixed by private photographers and you have to pay them a fee to take your photos!

      Please take note:
      Huashan (Mount Hua) is in Xian - Shaanxi Province
      Huangshan Mountain is in Anhui Province

      Many people got confused & mixed up by the similar names.

      Delete
    2. oh thambee was confused, haha!! so anay went to Huashan and not Huangshan, oooopsss!! anay hear of the story 華山論劍?? it means to fight with sword on Huashan, but recently people take about hamsap things about this story and use the "sword" to mean other things~~

      Delete
    3. Oh great, 華山 - Ah Hua Mountain is so famous :D

      Delete
  12. the trek is certainly very very dangerous, and my balls almost shrink when i see the trek especially the one covered with ice!! it could be so slippery and just along the cliff, slightly a miss step would bring you to hell!! wow~~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I slipped & nearly fell many times but hurt my muscles & tendon strings all over between my legs and my back. I had terrible back ache on my way down. The very hot water spa managed to soothe all the aches away. Very good therapy!

      How to google whether anyone fell down to their deaths??

      Delete
  13. so anay climbed 7000ft up and then walked 7000ft down?? OMG, sure you shredded 5kg after this climb?? and the cable car looks scary too, so steep!! thambee is afraid of height, so dare not look down or go near the window..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I reached the top peak but it was a long journey crossing several peaks to arrive at the top. It is not like Mt Kinabalu which it almost a straight forward hike upwards. There were no other mountains to admire at the Mt Kinabalu hike. Boring lo!

      Delete
  14. i am quite worry about all those locks adding weight to the mountain!! i also don't believe that this will lock your relationship.. in a good way, this symbolize locking both together.. but then throwing the key away means if anything happen each cannot run away from the other!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are definitely my Thambee that is why we think alike!

      Delete
  15. finally to conclude my spam.. really very nice scenery!! mountains in china has some really unique view and very signature too.. once you see you can tell it's in china.. i personally love the last photo, the silhouette of the mountains and the cypress trees looks cool..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How clever Thambee! I didn't even know that is Cypress Trees! I thought they were just Pine Trees that make good Bonsai.

      I stood and looked at that scenery for 10 mins with dropped jaws. So cantek!

      Delete
  16. My dear Annay:

    I am sorry that this is the wrong mountain I wanted to climb... The correct one is in AnHui province, call Mount Jiu Hua(九华山), which is next to Mount Huang (黄山)... Please climb with me again next year to Mount Jiu Hua(九华山) and if possible, to Mount Huang (黄山) too... Thanks for your support.

    Your Letcumi

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh My God! My Letchmi is here! Anay so shocked.


      WHAAAAAAAAAT???? Wrong mountain!!!!!! My heart has collapsed! Anay faints!

      Delete
  17. OMGH....got butt photo here LOL....

    ReplyDelete
  18. I dont think i have the stamina to climb this mountain lo. I see the narrow path , my legs already turn to jelly. If I ever go there i will give this a pass

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here, I'm afraid of height. Anything to do with height, I'll give it a pass. And don't ask me to eat those funny funny stuff.

      Delete
  19. "If I was pregnant, I could have gotten instant miscarriage on the bus!"

    Annay so funny la! Kakakaka! The driver's skill is as bad as the road condition?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh good heavens, Twilight Man, I'm so glad you bullied (heh heh) me into visiting your site again! This is an AWESOME post!

    First, apologies. You're right. I've been less active on other websites ever since autumn started in Japan: too much hiking and photographing and writing about it on my own blog.

    And just look at what I've been missing!

    I wish I could do this hike! I'm not scared of hikes, but I must admit: those toilets scare me silly. Ugh.

    PS: The best photo, to me, is that centuries-old tree defying wind and weather against that vertical slope. Are you like that pine tree, TM? ^^

    ReplyDelete
  21. Salute!!! The journey up there is so scary, are u dare to look down when u were at the highest point? :P

    ReplyDelete
  22. congrats! you made it to the top of the world in China!

    ReplyDelete
  23. way to go Anay and Letchumi! both of you are so 'keng' and brave. i'm such a scaredy cat. i don't think i've the courage and strength to climb up that high. the pathway looks so freaking scary but the views are awesomely gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  24. fatty liver treatment fatty liver treatment fatty
    liver treatment

    Also visit my web site ... can fatty liver be cured

    ReplyDelete

The Day My World Ended

At sunrise of 3rd August, my wife came to fetch me in her brand new car. She sped all the way through the morning traffic to Shah Alam. It w...